Judge Gives Lauryn Hill Two Weeks to Pay $500,000 Tax Debt

A federal judge Monday postponed the sentencing of Grammy award winning singer Lauryn Hill for federal tax evasion by two weeks, giving her more time to pay $504,000 in owed taxes.

Hill pled guilty to failing to file federal tax returns from 2005-2007, during which she earned nearly $2 million. She faces up to three years in prison. On Monday, Reuters reported Judge Madeline Cox Arleo “admonished” Hill and her attorneys for not paying earlier. Arleo, however, pushed back her sentencing to May 6.

“Attorney Nathan Hochman, representing Hill, said the singer had lined up a deal with a hard money lender’ for a loan that was secured by two real estate assets, and that she was expecting final approval of the loan sometime this week,” Reuters wrote in a report with a Newark dateline.

“For Miss Hill, the only question was when she was going to pay those taxes, not if,” Hochman told a gaggle of reporters. It was in response to the judge’s assertion that Hill was not someone “who stands before the court penniless.”

It was not immediately clear if Hill would serve jail time. She is the mother of six children, five of whom are with Rohan Marley, son of the late Bob Marley.